Greenwich Township Committee members Thursday night unanimously authorized the township engineer and attorney to discuss Pohatcong's red light cameras at Routes 22 and 122 with the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

“Some of the violations are occurring in Greenwich, while summonses are being issued by Pohatcong,” Greenwich Mayor Joseph Tauriello said Friday of the intersection that borders the two townships.

Tauriello added Greenwich is reaching out to NJDOT officials “because Pohatcong chose not to sit down and discuss this subject with us.”

The Pohatcong Township cameras went live in August, and police started issuing citations at the end of September.

At the two intersections combined, motorists have received 13,836 $85 citations since September, a spokesman for Pohatcong's red light camera vendor said Friday. The municipal portion of the fine is $73.50 and the state collects $11.50, making for revenue of $1,016,946 to Pohatcong Township alone.

The township's red-light camera contractor, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based American Traffic Solutions, takes a $17 fee out of the municipal revenue from each ticket, carving out $235,212 to date.

Unprecedented dispute

Charles Territo, spokesman for American Traffic Solutions, said Friday that to his knowledge, this dispute between bordering municipalities at a red light camera intersection is unprecedented.

Pohatcong Township Mayor James Kern III deferred comment Friday to township attorney Kevin Benbrook, who forwarded to The Express-Times a Feb. 13 letter received from Greenwich Township and the response he prepared Thursday.

In the response letter, Benbrook highlights two state statutes that allow the township to ticket in Greenwich.

“The territory of a municipality includes any premises or property located partly in and partly outside of the municipality,” Benbrook said in the letter, citing state law N.J.S.A. 2B:12-16(a). “Thus, pursuant to this statute, the entirety of Route 22 falls within the territorial jurisdiction of both townships, and both townships’ police departments routinely issue valid traffic citations on both sides of the highway.”

Benbrook also cited N.J.S.A 39:5-3(c), which states, “When a violation occurs on a street through which the boundary line of two or more municipalities runs or crosses, then a proceeding may be brought before the judge having jurisdiction in any one of the municipalities divided by said boundary line.”

A spokesman for the company that installed the cameras said the intersection that borders the two municipalities has been identified by NJDOT as one of the most dangerous in the region.

“As with all cameras currently operating in the state of N.J., this location was approved by NJDOT prior to installation,” Territo, the American Traffic Solutions spokesman, said.

NJDOT: Vendor responsible

NJDOT spokesman Tim Greeley said one of four red light cameras at the state-owned and -maintained intersection is within the boundaries of Greenwich Township.

“The construction of the cameras was done by the vendor, not NJDOT,” Greeley said Friday.

However, Greeley said, once a motorist partially enters Route 22 from any direction, he or she enters Pohatcong Township, according to NJDOT highway diagrams.

“If there is a jurisdictional disagreement concerning the placement of the cameras and/or signs, or the issuance of violations at the intersection, then that would need to be addressed between the two municipalities,” Greeley said in an email. “Our goal with the pilot program is to reduce accidents caused by red light running at trouble intersections, not to get involved in jurisdictional disputes.”